At The VMAs, Beyonce And Nicki Minaj Play With Personas

Sunday night, women gave the most memorable performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, and Stephen Thompson and I got together to chat about the provocations of Nicki Minaj, the royal Beyonce and more.

You can check out the video of all the performances for yourself, from the triple threat of Ariana Grande, Jessie J and Nicki Minaj to the 16-minute Beyonce-stravaganza that closed the show.

As a side note, this will be an uncharacteristically — and, going forward, unusually — busy week for these Small Batch Editions of the podcast. With the Emmys going on and some other things afoot, there may be a couple more of them, but don't either get attached to that or worry about it, depending on your POV: This week will be out of the ordinary.